| Ringmaster FAQ |
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This section covers the basics of the Webring system. What is it, what it does, and what kinds of things you need to know prior to creating your own Webring.
A Webring is a way to group sites with a similar interest together in a "ring". Links on each page in the allow you to move from one site to the next, allowing one to (eventually) traverse the entire ring and end up where they started.
Take a look at the Webring homepage, or the document What is the Webring.
The ringmaster or ringmistress (as some prefer to be called) is the person in charge of a particular ring. They are (typically) the ones who create the ring, create the homepage containing information about the ring, and perform various management tasks associated with keeping the ring running smoothly. These include
- answering questions about the ring
- adding sites to the ring (some rings allow current sites in the ring to do this as well)
- removing old or inactive sites from the ring
Ringmasters automatically get an e-mail 'alias' at webring.org that forwards mail to their regular e-mail account. This address looks like "ringmaster-ringid@webring.org", where 'ringid' is the Ring ID for the ring they manage (see below).
The Ring ID is a string (sequence of characters) that uniquely identify a particular ring on the Webring server. Ring ID's are composed of letters and numbers, contain no whitespace or punctuation, and are case insensitive (FISH = FiSh = fish).
Whenever someone puts a link to the Webring server to perform some operation or display some information about a ring, the URL will contain a 'ring=___' segment, where ___ is the Ring ID.
A Site ID is simply a number that uniquely identifies a particular site in a Webring. Site ID's start at 1 and go up from there. Sites are assigned a Site ID when the site information is submitted to the Queue.
Site ID's never change. They also have absolutely nothing to do with the "order" that sites are arranged in ring. Their sole purpose is to uniquely identify sites in the Webring database. They are listed next to the site in the ring index (http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=___;index) or in Ring Management | Manage Ring Sites. Site ID's are used ONLY on the sites that they were assigned to. Doing this lets webring know where to move FROM in the ring.
1.5. Can anyone create a Webring?
The Webring allows anyone to create a ring who wants to and is capable of doing so. However, potential ringmasters need to have at least a basic understanding of how the Webring works (hence this FAQ) and be aware of what is involved in managing a ring (see below).
1.6. What do I need to know to run a Webring?
Before considering creating a ring, potential ringmasters
- should have a good understanding of what the World Wide Web is and how it works;
- be able to create a web page;
- have a web account where they can put a web page;
- have a working e-mail account.
Creating and managing a ring can also consume a significant amount of time, depending the type of ring and how large it becomes. For the average web user who already has their own homepage, I would expect the initial process of creating a ring and it's associated homepage and graphics to take between 6 and 20 hours.
Once the ring is up and running, it will take significantly less time to manage it. You should expect to spend some time finding sites to get your ring started. You will also need to spend a few minutes a day (or week, perhaps) adding new sites to the ring, answering questions about the ring, and dealing with other random issues that arise.
As your ring gets larger, it will take more and more time to keep it running smoothly. As it's popularity increases, you will probably want to find devoted members of the ring to help you out with various management tasks (adding new sites, removing inactive sites, etc.).
1.7. What is the difference between the Ring and the Queue?
The Webring maintains two lists of sites for each Webring. The first contains all sites that are actually part of the ring of sites. "Next" and "Previous" links on sites on this list should move people from one site to the next.
The other list, called the Queue, is a sort of waiting area for sites that want to join the ring but haven't been approved yet, or have been temporarily moved out of the ring for some reason or other (missing URL, etc.).
When a site wants to join the ring, the site owner will typically fill out a form on the ring homepage with the site title, URL, a description, their e-mail address, and other random information. When this info is submitted, the site is added to the queue and they are assigned a Site ID (see question 1.4). It is then up to the ringmaster (or perhaps another member of the ring, if the ring is set up that way) to verify that the new site is actually appropriate/eligible for ring membership and then insert them in the ring. See Section 3 of this FAQ for information on adding sites to a ring.
1.8. How do the links on a typical Webring site work?
In essence, the links on each site in the ring provide a means for the webring database to know what site the user is coming from, and where they want to go.(ie, next site, prev site, etc....) By having the proper information on each site (ring id, site id#) the database then checks to see which site is next in line, and most importantly, what ring. When the user clicks on one of these links, webring will search the database for the proper information and then send the user to the url of the next site in the ring.
The same goes for the list option. The webring will call up a list of all the sites currently in the ring from the database, according to the ring id that was in the link.
The random function works in much the same way. But when it gets the id#, it makes sure that the random number that is chosen will not be the current site.
To get more detail about webring commands and how it works go to: Webring Commands
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